C2255 Ubumwe Group

Sylivestre is 37 years old and is married with three children. He lives in Kabuga where he is the president of a group called “Ubumwe”. This is the fourth successful year in their business of selling small fish commonly known as “indagara”. The group works from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day.

The group is requesting its first loan from Kiva lenders via Vision Finance Company in order to expand their business through purchasing a greater volume of indagara fish. With this loan, the group hopes to get better pricing for their product and improve their business and hopefully earn more profit in the process. This, in turn, will allow the members and their devoted spouses to build a secure future for themselves.

Additional Information

About Vision Finance Company s.a – Rwanda (VFC)

Vision Finance Company (VFC) was Kiva's first partner in Rwanda. Established in 1999, VFC is an affiliate of World Vision International. Since its founding, VFC has been committed to alleviating poverty in Rwanda by ensuring that poor people have access to credit to support business initiatives that will improve their life circumstances.

VFC has a broad set of products and services, offering Community Banking services for self-selected groups of 10-30 borrowers, Solidarity Group services for more experienced groups of entrepreneurs, and Individual Loans for customers who already have a small established business. Vision Finance is also among the very few financial institutions targeting farmers and providing agricultural credit options in Rwanda, where access to credit is critical to the success of agricultural enterprises.

This is a Group Loan

In a group loan, each member of the group receives an individual loan but is part of a larger group of individuals. The group is there to provide support to the members and to provide a system of peer pressure, but groups may or may not be formally bound by a group guarantee. In cases where there is a group guarantee, members of the group are responsible for paying back the loans of their fellow group members in the case of delinquency or default.

Kiva's Field Partners typically feature one borrower from a group. The loan description, sector, and other attributes for a group loan profile are determined by the featured borrower's loan. The other members of the group are not required to use their loans for the same purpose.